I had almost all my Year Zero (YZ) and Free League games in storage in the garage, and I saw them as something that did not capture my imagination. The only ones I kept out were Twilight: 2000, just because we were long-time players of that game, and Alien because it was more board-game-like and did what it did exceptionally well.
The others? Tales from the Loop, Coriolis, Mutant Year Zero, and Forbidden Lands? Storage.
Then the Walking Dead universe RPG came out. And I was hooked. And not because I was a massive fan of The Walking Dead; I like the comics better (less TV executive interference and more story-focused), but I was never a massive reader of those.
This was a zombie game finally done right.
I have zombie games, but most all do zombies as single monsters and fall into the trap of superpowered zombies. This one can fly! This one can mimic people! This one can climb walls! This one explodes! This one can teleport! This one has laser eyes! The designers don't know the difference between comic-book mutants and zombies.
And the combats, like in 5E, get longer and longer and longer. Boredom in these games is real, especially in 5E, where players shrug their shoulders and accept it as a part of the game design. The era of bloated D&D and Pathfinder monster stat blocks and a massive pile of hit points is over in 2024. I doubt I am ever returning to it, and it bores me.
The Walking Dead game abstracts the zombies at a threat level, making them like a weather condition that can attack you. You can zoom in and fight a single zombie if you want (one success will take out most any walker), or you can leave them as their "area threat" abstracted mechanic.
And then there was Dragonbane...
It is a game that takes many lessons from 5E and discards the tedium while embracing the best parts of the system. Dragonbane is what the 2024 version of D&D should be. It is a system that is unafraid to toss out the cruft, flange, and garbage in D&D and focus on the best parts, like a laser. This game plays like it wants to be streamed in a Critical Role show.
This also advances the concepts of D&D while tossing out the slowness, escalating numbers, tedious math, and the invincibility aspect of 5E. The game retains character customization and opens up various character types. As you advance (or as a part of an epic achievement), your character gets Heroic abilities - one of these is magic use.
You can have a rogue character that learns magic.
Do you mean I have a thief who can use divination to detect the direction of a material like gold and have flight and teleport powers? Mental tricks, too? Are you kidding me? Don't let the flat power curve trick you; these characters can amass incredible power from the matrix of abilities they can combo up.
And the solo rules let you play this like a one-person army, giving you that Conan-style experience of one against the world. You can play with anthropomorphic animals, and they add new kin to the bestiary. Skills level as you use them. You can mix magic, stealth, social, and combat. This game is the Skyrim of tabletop RPGs.
Want even more power? Mod the game to allow for limited ability score increases. I don't recommend this, but, hey, this has that old-school game DNA - if you want to reward a player with a +1 STR or a few hp, and they earned it, do it. Mod and hack: this is your game, and you are not hurting anyone.
Where 5E leaves off, Dragonbane picks up the torch.
The only game I left out was Mutant: Year Zero. I hear many good things about this game, but I have the core book and am not really into it. Some of the books are out of print, and since this is an earlier game, it is not up to par in production quality, art, or consistency of rules. I would love to see a new version with the newer games' unique art, streamlining, and direction.
As it is, I have enough post-apocalyptic with both Twilight and The Walking Dead for now.
Still, they have a new book for preorder for this, and the game is still alive.
Then there is Twilight: 2000. This game stayed on my shelf, but it came in the mail the same day the Ukraine war broke out, and I have been hesitant to play something unfolding in front of our eyes. I love this game since it was a massive part of gaming in the late 1980s and early 1990s for me and my brother, and I could still see myself playing this someday as a solo game.
Though, like when we played it as an action movie-type game (good guys versus bad), the enemies are pretty straightforward these days - just like back then.
Coriolis is another game I boxed up. Some love this game more than Traveller, since it does the mystery and metaphysical so well. This is one I am reading and trying to rekindle interest. I need an excellent sci-fi game, and basic Traveller and Cephus Engine are too bland for me, with no room for the unexplained and mystical. There are times with sci-fi that I want something alien and mystical, and no other sci-fi game has that right now. Starfinder is too pedestrian - magic is ordinary and everyday. Traveller is too debt-ridden and "space math" for me. Star Frontiers was fun, but we played that for 40 years, and I am ready to let it be.
It is either Coriolis or Stars Without Number. The former has far more mystery to me and likely be my new sci-fi game.
Forbidden Lands is one I had boxed, even though it is an excellent solo game focusing on hex crawling. It has many more rules than Dragonbane and tries to be a complete "world simulator" with many character options, things to do, and game rules that go in-depth in many areas.
Dragonbane feels like the beer & pretzels d20 dungeon adventure game; play this if you want classic 'streaming show' fights and deadly encounters. In contrast, Forbidden Lands feels more in the realm of ACKS with strongholds, domain management, hex crawling, survival, exploration, extended campaign play, and deep character options.
Either do a better job than 5E in the areas they focus on. Also, Forbidden Lands is not being replaced here; while they are similar in style and share rules - the focus of each and the stories they tell are very different.
Blade Runner, I am reading. This is a solid cyberpunk game; you can play more than cops. Just fill in the blanks with the YZ SRD and use classic noir movies and gangster games for inspiration. I can see playing this one soon.
I would love to see expansions for this game taking on various professions, such as criminals, reporters, special agents, the military, and other factions. If they don't make them, it doesn't matter; I can fill them in myself.
The last one I have is Tales From the Loop. I like this better than the pseudo-sequel Things From the Flood (non-canon in my eyes) since the tech and mystery are here. Loop has that classic 1980s mystery and innocence, and I would not mind playing Flood's older characters here either, but it would be more like a Red Dawn game of secret alien invasions if I did. It does feel like the more sci-tech and conceptual Stranger Things, and it has a Netflix show (I need to watch), so the original feels like a more robust game.
One of my problems with the follow-up, Things From the Flood, is all the cool conceptual flying cars, robots, and other fantastic artwork and alt-past technology from Loop were stripped away - and nothing replaced it. The machine-virus is presented as a destructive force, and they hinted at giant monsters in the artwork but didn't deliver. Can biotech infect humans and turn them into mutants? Can those powers be used for good or evil? Are there alien-bug soldiers and sub-bosses out there like some Power Rangers enemy?
The enemy in Things From the Flood is puberty, in a setting that, if you follow the logical conclusions of Earth losing all of its high technology - should be filled with a Great Depression, vile social movements blaming others for the world's problems, dictators, and war. It is supposed to be a post-apocalyptic setting, but it assumes we have the mall, 1990s music, and the Sega Genesis to kick back with. The game even goes as far as introducing 9/11, which makes no sense if there were flying cargo ships and a major disruption to the energy economy in the 1980s.
I am not playing this currently, but I am thinking about it. There is a good story there, just not in the follow-up game.
Dragonbane and Walking Dead changed the narrative with Free League, and they lifted the other games back to my main shelves for me. What appeals to them for me is the solo play aspects and the elegant designs. While I like GURPS, I sometimes feel it spends too much time in places that should be GM rulings, and the game keeps moving. Cypher System can feel too abstract at times. 5E feels like a mess where everyone piles on for a quick buck, even the company making the game. 5E isn't balanced, and the design feels like a fast-food meal.
The Free League games retain the abstract nature that Cypher System uses well but aren't afraid to lean into the areas that define the genre and supply rules that enhance the experience. They are the perfect mix of abstract resolution and mid-complexity, giving you more crunch than a rules-light game. And unlike 5E, pathfinder, and GURPS, and I put those games in the same category these days, they aren't bloated and overdone in areas where they need to embrace a streamlined gameplay experience.
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